Tumutumu Hospital

Kenya

Tumutumu Hospital is situated in the Central Highlands of Kenya between Mount Kenya and the Aberdare Range. It is 130 km north of Nairobi, and is at an altitude of 5,900 feet. The mission site was chosen in 1908 by Drs. Henry Scott and Arthur of the Church of Scotland. Outpatients were first seen in 1909 and inpatient work commenced in 1910. Since 1956 Tumutumu has been one of the three mission hospitals in Kenya sponsored by the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA). The hospital now consists of a number of one story buildings, with 203 beds, and is surrounded by lawns, flower beds and trees. The majority of the population served are Kikuyus -- the largest tribe in Kenya — and the language spoken is also primarily Kikuyu. Most local people are small scale farmers.

Tumutumu hospital serves as a teaching hospital as well as providing the surrounding rural community with preventive and basic curative health care. Although medical care is available in this particular area from government services, patients come to Tumutumu because of the quality of nursing care, the availability of drugs, and the holistic patient care given at the Tumutumu Hospital. There are growing numbers of admissions yearly, now over 7,000 per year. Over 50,000 outpatients are seen yearly, as well. The hospital provides excellent maternal and child health care in the form of prenatal, family planning, and well-baby immunization clinics as well as treatment of minor trauma and routine tropical diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. It is also well equipped to care for complications of common childhood illnesses such as measles and whooping cough and gynecological and obstetrical problems. Its community outreach activities focus on some of these same primary health care programs through operation of eight dispensaries. An AIDS prevention program has been developed as well. Tumutumu provides training to approximately 100 nursing students annually. In these hospital and outreach settings, the program is able to give student nurses very practical, hands-on training.